Structural, Magnetic, and Thermoelectric Properties of Some CePd3-Based Compounds

Intermediate valence compounds such as CePd3 possess unusual electronic properties such as simultaneously high values of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, making them strong candidates for low-temperature thermoelectric applications if a method can be developed for reducing the lattice thermal conductivity without altering these desirable electronic properties. This has motivated us to systematically explore the transport properties of several novel series of CePd3-based compounds. The results of these studies have guided us to a deeper understanding of the factors controlling the various transport properties of the system, and we have successfully used this framework to achieve some modest enhancements in the thermoelectric figure of merit. We present an outline of the approaches we have taken and a summary of our results.